


Jester's Cookie Heist

by wolfyraged



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Childhood Memories, Cookies, Ficlet, Gen, Jester loves her friends, Memories, My First Fanfic, Non-Linear Narrative, Oh also, POV Jester Lavorre, Spoilers, c2e86 for the events in the story, dead names, dead naming, for jester's childhood name, jester is maybe three or four here, jester loves her family—all of it, oh yeah, time fluidity, up to c2e95 for the name
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:00:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26299057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfyraged/pseuds/wolfyraged
Summary: Baby Jester really wants a cookie, but the jar is so far away.A look into the effort and adrenaline of chasing what's important.
Relationships: Jester Lavorre & Yasha
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	Jester's Cookie Heist

**Author's Note:**

> Jester is maybe three or four here.

She stretches and stretches, her hand so high in the air, on the tippiest of her top toes, but Jester just couldn’t reach. The cookie jar must be a hundred miles away!

 _(—and behind closing doors, the Laughing Hand looms as Yasha’s eyes glow with malignant rage past the closing door, past Jester's reaching fingers—)_

Jester hops down from the stool she’s on and considers the kitchen. The high counter is just in reach with the stool, but the shelf the cat-shaped cookie jar is on is at the opposite side of the spice cabinet than can be reached by even a stool plus counter plus tippy toes.

There is a thump thump thump to her left-behind and she freezes before jumping beneath a table. She grabs her tail close, clutching it to her chest right before heavy feet pass by, then stop.

_(How many hundreds of miles and dozens of planar jumps did Yasha walk and endure? Was she crying the whole time? Caduceus said dehydration is so bad for you, and he would know, he’s met so many weary, teary travelers—)_

She peeks out to see Bluud with a furry eyebrow raised. She watches him ignore the turned over stool and the stack of books and also what might be Mama’s favorite mug carefully and unusually placed on the counter but the chip in the rim was so tiny you couldn’t see it anyway.

No, she watches him ignore all that and make the little “Jester” laugh which means it’s okay. Bluud says it means he’s “exasperated,” which really just seems like an overly complicated way to say “talking to Jester.” He picks her up and! Is he going to lift her up to the out of reach cookies? Mama always did say family is here to help—

“It’s time for dinner, young Genevieve. Vegetables first, then frosted cinnamon cookies.”

Jester watches as the happy orange cat, now close enough as she's picked up to see a cute little smiling face and a white patch on the forehead, gets further away

 _(They had her, they **had her** , she was so close, Yasha was **right there** and then stupid Obann woke the stupid tree up and got what he wanted so fast and **took her away**_ \--)

She sat down next to Mama for dinner! How lucky, she hasn’t seen Mama in forever

_(—Nott keeps saying Yasha’s evil, they didn’t know her for long enough, she was always evil, but Jester knows deep in her heart that that can’t be true, it just can’t, this is the one thing she desperately knows her fellow detective must be wrong about—)_

Jester eats her veggies, she really does, except the ones she makes into the silly unicorns the Traveler showed her. Mama’s laugh is so pretty, it practically— _(Glows, the orange, runic mark on Yasha’s neck glows! Jester knew it, she found it, now what to do—_

_(What to do, but to—)_ sneak away and into the kitchen at the end of dinner. Bluud moved the jar onto the counter so they’re close, they’re—

 _(—finally accessible, they’re in Rexxentrum, they’re in the church, **we’re inside** —)_ and there’s only one cookie, at the bottom of the jar, it’s big and beautiful and

 _(—so close, it’s Yasha, but it’s not, but Jester can’t get to her, but she can’t see Caleb, and Beau is **down.** There’s a sword, Yasha’s sword, through her chest. Jester’s ears are blocked by the blood rushing in her veins, she can only feel the frantic beating of her heart, but she sees herself bend down and pull Beau back from the Raven Queen’s domain using her best friend’s power. The relief cut is short by the sound of—)_

Shattering, what shattered, Jester glances down to see pieces of Mama’s Second Favorite Mug.

Jester’s eyes are pulled to her palms, holding the best cookie in the world. She doesn’t see blue, _(red blood)_ , yellow, _(purple shattered glass)_ or green shattered pottery, and she looks up from her hands. She sees the shocked faces of her family _(her family and her enemies, and someone who used to be both and is no longer, her Yasha, returned)_ and smiles, sheepishly.

_“It was worth it.”_

**Author's Note:**

> I have feelings about Jester's consistent defense of and scrying on Yasha. She loves her friends.
> 
> Partially inspired by Lilli Furfaro's lyrics
> 
> "in a world that couldn't stand a chance  
> against the cake and courage in her heart"
> 
> from the song "Eyes Warm, Eyes Wide" which I still have yet recover from. Seven years, and of course lovely, beautiful music is what gets me writing again.
> 
> Thank y'all for reading.


End file.
